During his speech at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters on Friday, Steve Jobs targeted a number of competitors whose handsets he claimed were subject to similar reception problems as the latest Apple device. One of those handsets in Job’s sights for petty, speculative ridicule was Samsung’s Omnia II.

Although Jobs claimed that when held around the body the Omnia II’s signal would be seen to drop, an official statement from Samsung has declared: "The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future".

The other handsets on the receiving end of Jobs’ childish attack included the HTC Droid Eris and RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9700. This attempt to belittle the BlackBerry device received a strong reaction from RIM’s co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsille who said: "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation.”

Following the schoolyard-esq bullying of other manufacturers, Apple boss Steve Jobs went on to announce that all iPhone 4 handsets purchased up until September 30th would now receive a free case to counteract the reception problems that cause the device to lose signal and drop calls when held in a conventional manner that covers the lower left corner.

Do you think Apple was right to attack fellow manufacturers or simply petty in trying to shirk negative press? Let us know via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.